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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. B11
The empire, divided by Peter the Great into nine extenfive governments, is now
diftributed into a larger number *, each upon an average containing only from three to
four hundred thoufand males. One or more of thefe governments is fuperintended by
a Name/ftnick, or lord-licutenant, and each has a vice governor, a council, civil and cri-
minal courts of judicature, fome of whofe members are appointed by the fovereign, and
the others chofen by the nobles. By this inftitution Catharine has*in fome initances,
circum{cribed her prerogative, by diminifhing the power of thofe tribunals which were
only dependent upon the crown, or transferring it to the nobles, and invefting them
with many additional privileges with refpect to the adminiftration of jullice. By intro-
ducing likewife into each government fuperior tribunals, whofe decifion is fiaul, fhe has
prevented frequent appeals to the imperial colleges at Peterfburgh and Mofcow, which
were attended with confiderable expence and delay. By eftablifhing or feparating the
different boards of finance, police, &c. from the courts of law, which before impeded
each other by meeting in the fame place, fhe has facilitated the difpatch of bufinefs, and
rendered the admini{tration of juftice more fpeedy. She has increafed the falaries of
the judges, who, from the narrownefs of their income, were expofed to almolt irrefiltible
temptations from bribery ; or, to ufe her own expreffions to the judyes, in her cele.
brated edict, ** Formerly your neceffities might have induced you to be too attentive to
your own interefts : your country now pays your labours, and what before might admit
of fome excufe, from this moment becomes a crime.”
To thefe regulations muft be added the abolition of torture; the eftablifhment of
proper boundaries between the governments, which has prevented many diflenfions and
law-fuits; the appointment of regular phyficians and furgeons, in various diftriéts, at
the expence of the crown; the foundation of fchools, and the eftablifhment of new
feminaries for thofe intended for holy orders; the ereétion of new bodies corporate
with additional immunities; the grant of freedom to numberlefs vaffals of the crown;
and the means taken to facilitate the emancipation of the peafantry. But of all the
plans, none is more ufeful and praife-worthy than the eftablifhment of fchools in every
government, formed on the moft comprehenfive fcale and liberal principles.
An academy is eftablifhed at St. Peterfburgh for the inftrution of two hundred ftu-
dents, defigned to be mafters of the provincial fchools. _ It is provided with profeffors
of hiftory, mathematics, rhetoric, and natural hiftory; with a German matter, and a
drawing mafter. The ftudents are felected from the different feminaries of the Ruffian
empire, and, as they have received their education as priefts of the regular clergy, un-
derftand Latin. They are twenty years of age, and are to remain at Peterfburgh three
years; during which period they are inftructed in hiftory, geography, the various
branches of natural philofophy, and natural hiftory. They are all boarded, lodged, and
inftruéted at the Emprefs’s expence. At the conclufion of this term their places to be
fupplied by others, and they will be diftributed in the different parts of Ruffia. Two of
thefe ftudents will be eftablifhed in the principal town of each government; one as
teacher of mathematics, the other of hiftory, geography, and natural hiftory. Each
ftudent, thus eftablifhed, is to inftrué other itudents as preceptors of the fmaller {chools
in the leffer towns. The regulation of this ufeful eftablifhment is entrufted to a com-
mittee confifting of five members, who have the fuperintendance of the whole.
* The firft provinces ere€ted into governments, according to the new inftitution, were Tver and Smo-
lenfko, in January 1776. Thofe which have been fince eftablifhed, either before or during my refidence
in Ruffia, were in the following order: Novogorod and Kaluga, in December 1776; Plefcof, Yaroflaf,
and Tula, in December 1777; Polotfk and Mohilef, in May 1778; Refan, Volodimir, Kottroma,
and Orel, in December 1778; See aliit of the governments, Book vi. chapi p. 339.
5u2 Thus,
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